


Out In Daylight

by Pyrrhic_Victory (our_end)



Series: The Twins - Aaron and Ace [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Emotional Instability, Heartbreak, Lies, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Psychopathology & Sociopathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-28 06:18:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7628359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/our_end/pseuds/Pyrrhic_Victory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>These past few months with Aaron had been wonderful. Zac couldn't have asked for anyone better, and he could barely wait to tell his sister about him. Unfortunately, nothing with his boyfriend is as it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out In Daylight

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a roleplay partner I have on Tumblr, using our own OCs. Aaron is mine, the siblings are hers. While originally set in the Marvel fandom, it can stand by itself. 
> 
> Aaron is a mercenary, and Zac is a photographer. If you want any additional information on the story, feel free to comment on it, because this is just a snippet of a much bigger plot. Just the part that hurts.

 

There was a very strange feeling that came with waking up with the knowledge you were not in the same place that you had been in when you had fallen asleep. This feeling was new to Zac, and yet, he recognized it, waking up sitting, in a very cold room. He couldn’t move his hands, and looking down at himself, he confirmed that they were tightly bound with rope behind his back, putting a great deal of pressure on his shoulders. The sudden fear sent a spike of adrenaline down his spine and he looked frantically around, trying to see if he was alone.

“H-Hello?” he called out, voice shaking as much as his body. What had happened? He didn’t remember anything unusual. He had fallen asleep in his apartment, alone with Misiko. How had he ended up here? Who had taken him? And why?

A dark laugh startled him out of his desperate thoughts. A familiar laugh, one that made his blood run cold, and his mind refuse to make the connection. It wasn’t possible.

“Well, well, all caught up in the spider’s web, aren’t you?” That voice… Zac knew that voice, and for a moment he refused to believe it. However, from the shadows before him, stepped out the last person he had been expecting to see. Not in this context, and not with that look on his face.

Aaron looked _evil_ , for the lack of a better word. His eyes shone with malice, and he was smiling in a way that made shivers run down Zac’s spine. It took the older man a few moments to realize that the other also had his phone in hand, and was idly fiddling with it, but every move felt calculated and cold. Zac couldn’t, wouldn’t believe it. Why would his boyfriend, of all people, do this to him? It just didn’t make sense.

But it was Aaron. Zac knew, he knew this wasn’t a twin or anything. Somehow, he could tell, and it only made his heart ache worse. Maybe there was some kind of misunderstanding… “L-Love? What are you doing?” He tried to keep the tremor from his voice, but it was simply impossible. Aaron was _scaring_ him.

“I just called your sister,” Graves said, in means of response, “and she’s probably panicking at the airport, trying to figure out how to get here quickly.”

Zac felt his heart skip a beat in his chest. What? Iris? What did Iris have to do with this? Aaron wasn’t acting like himself at all. “I don’t understand, love. W-What do you want?” There had to be something, some sort of game. This couldn’t be what it seemed.

“Well, I’m planning on hurting you, _love_ ,” he answered, mocking the other man with every word that left his mouth. The older man’s breath hitched, and the fear returned. Pure, unbridled fear. What was his boyfriend going on about? “Very badly.” The expression on his victim’s face was already hilarious. Aaron could only imagine what Zac was going through. The betrayal, that awful feeling, the fear, the confusion…

“W-Why…?” Zac’s voice broke on that one syllable, on that one question he had wanted to ask. Why would Aaron… _his_ Aaron do this? All of this didn’t seem like the man he had come to know over the past months. A man he had come to love.

“Your sister hurt me, buddy, she hurt me real bad,” he answered, while smacking his cheek lightly, a display of condescendence, “and I thought it’d be appropriate to hit her where it hurts the most.” He smiled widely, showing too much teeth. “You.” At Zac’s confused expression, he laughed, loudly. “Iris and I have been at each other’s throats for months now. You know, the usual in my line of work. I save her, she annoys me, I hurt her, she hurts me…” He laughed again. “Like one big game of tag. Only we couldn’t kill each other. Orders from above, you see?” Explaining that they were both Bullseye’s puppets would be too complicated, and would take too long. “So I did a little bit of research, and I found the perfect solution.” His expression turned even crueller. “You.”

“B-But… all these months-” I couldn’t be, it _couldn’t_ be.

“Oh, I lied,” Aaron smirked. The answer was given nonchalantly, carelessly, tossed around with the intent to harm. “I waited and waited, all this time, so I could have a shot at you. _Really_ hurt you.” He laughed again, the same deep, cruel chuckle.

The silence could be cut with a knife. Zac felt his heart break. It hurt, it hurt _so badly_. Aaron… had lied? About everything, just so he could get his revenge on Iris? They had spent… wonderful days together, and it had all been a lie? If hurting him was all that the other man wanted… he was doing a pretty good job of it, because Zac had never felt so much _pain_.

Graves watched the other’s face, impassively staring at the tears quickly forming in the photographer’s eyes, running down his face. This was only the first part of the harm that was to fall upon Zac.

“What…? Is… Is this really n-necessary?” Zac tried asking, tried speaking past the knot in his throat, starting to see how unhinged Graves sounded and looked. There was definitely something wrong here, something was going on that he didn’t understand. There had to be something more at play, this wasn’t the Aaron he knew. It couldn’t be. “L-Love, we can… we can get you some help-”

“I don’t need help!” Abruptly, Graves was upon him, much closer than he had been before, rage twisting his features. “I don’t need help, I need her to _hurt_! I need revenge!” he roared, making the older man swallow heavily in fear, but otherwise stay frozen in his seat.

“Aaron, love, _please_ …”

“Shut up!” Graves raised his hand, ready to land a violent blow, and Zac...

Zac flinched.

With that one movement, that one little show of fear, something that Graves normally revelled in, everything that he had been holding back hit him like a truck, and all his plans unravelled, right then and there. Memories played like a film inside his head, of both of them, laughing, walking in the park, in Zac’s kitchen, holding hands…

_Why would you wait so long to spring your trap?_

_What made you hesitate?_

_What is stopping you right now?_

Aaron didn’t want to think about, he didn’t, but he couldn’t help it. He’d gone too long ignoring it, and now he was paying the price. Questions, to which he had always known the answer, burned in his mind, accusing, ominous.

_Why can’t you hurt him? You know it, don’t you?_

_Because I_ love _him_.

How… How was this possible? It wasn’t supposed to happen, he wasn’t supposed to feel _anything_. They had… They had told him that his brain couldn’t… He knew the answer to that, too, no matter how much it pained him to admit. That… weakling, that version of him with no memories, wasn’t as gone as he’d wished he’d be. Some part of that still lingered in his being. Emotions, raw and new and dangerous. And with the barrage of feelings, came the pain. Sharp, agonizing pain, just behind his eyes, like someone was taking a drill to his brain.

Zac watched with wide eyes as the man he thought he knew stumbled back, holding his head in his hands. _A headache_ … He realized, and immediately felt awful for being relieved. Even if it was winning him some more time, Aaron was still in pain, and this situation was far from being over.

“Aaron,” he tried again, but his answer was a scream, born out of rage and pain, and fear too. Fear of the unknown. It made him close his mouth, only able to watch as the other man struggled with something seemingly internal.

This was too much. Just looking at Zac made his heart hurt. _Why did it hurt so damn much?_ He wanted to _protect_ Zac, going against everything he knew, against how he had lived his life up until this point in time.

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t _hurt_ the man.

Much to his horror, Graves felt something wet on his face, and scrubbed at his eyes furiously, trying to make sense of the maelstrom of emotions inside of him, with little success. He couldn’t do it, he couldn’t do it… His eyes fell on Zac, even though his vision was blurry with tears. Confusion and fear. Why did he feel so _bad_ seeing those emotions on the other’s face?

 _You know why_.

He shook his head violently. Zac just watched him, unable to understand what was going on. The headaches had always worried him, but now it seemed like they were worse than he had previously thought.

“Love…” He didn’t get to finish his sentence, or even think about what he was going to say next, before a knife flew past him to embed itself in the wall behind him with a dull, but loud, sound. His eyes widened, and he looked at Aaron in horror. The weapon hadn’t hurt him, hadn’t even grazed him, but… his love… his Aaron had… almost killed him…

Graves made a noise of horror, and he couldn’t help himself. He fled. His revenge didn’t matter, Iris didn’t matter, not in the face of all these new things he was feeling… all the things he had been feeling for the past few months and refusing to acknowledge. And for a moment, he wished… he wished he had been born normal… so he could stay with Zac, without hurting him.

All Zac could do was stare as the man he loved turned his back and ran away, leaving him there, alone and cold and scared. He knew his sister was coming, but… the one question echoed in his mind, over and over again.

_Why?_


End file.
